Montreal: Reuben’s Deli

by gigi on October 26, 2011

This has been quite the year for me in terms of mini trips. Earlier in the year, Jenkins and I went with my family to a trip out to Eastern Canada. It was my first family trip in a while and it turned out better than I expected. Our first stop was in Montreal. Jenkins and I had travelled there a few years back and I was hoping to revisit some of our favourite places from our last trip as well as try out some new places that cropped up on my radar.

Due to flight delays and other unpredictable events that often come with travel, we didn’t arrive in Montreal until pretty late and after we checked in at our hotel, it was already 9:30PM local time. I had a feeling that we’d be arriving in town pretty late so I had found a suitable dinner location ahead of time. Jenkins and I had tried Reuben’s during our first trip to Montreal and thought it was decent and another plus was the fact that it was fairly close to our hotel.

Since it was fairly late in the evening, we were able to find a table quite easily for our party of 8. Since I was in Montreal, I decided to order the Montreal smoked meat sandwich. If it looks a little small to you, that’s because I ordered the smaller version because I didn’t want to go to bed on a full stomach. The meat was quite flavourful and fairly juicy but I would have liked for it to be slightly fattier. I asked for my meat to be medium fatty so the fattier version potentially could have had the extra flavour and fat I was looking for. The accompanying coleslaw was lightly dressed with a vinaigrette dressing rather than mayo-based, which I liked.

Believe it or not, but Jenkins actually isn’t a huge smoked meat fan so he opted for a regular clubhouse sandwich. As you can see in the picture below, it was quite a generous serving size and although it tasted pretty standard, Jenkins noted that it was still pretty good. Jenkins’ order also came with the same coleslaw that I had in my smoked meat sandwich and a side of fries. The fries could have been fried a bit longer but other than that, nothing much to comment about.

Even though it was late and we were all pretty full, my brother convinced us to share some dessert. We opted for the strawberry cheesecake, which was also noted on the menu as a Reuben’s specialty. The cheesecake was probably the one downer of our meal. I thought it was too dense and even dry for my liking although the strawberries were surprisingly sweet and flavourful. I’m fairly particular about my cheesecake and although the taste was alright, I didn’t like the texture at all.

My family’s introduction to smoked meat sandwiches at Reuben’s was just enough to whet their appetite. As was with our previous visit here, the food at Reuben’s is pretty good but I definitely prefer the smoked meat at Schwartz’s, which you’ll see in a later review.